sSHOP SOLUTIONSProblem Solving on the ShoP Floor
Software Monitors Spindles, OEE for Incentive Payout
F or the Advanced companies (Owasso, OK),
FactoryWiz Monitoring software from Refresh
Your Memory Inc. (San Jose, CA) is monitor-
ing spindle utilization OEE and providing a baseline
to evaluate company performance for its employee
incentive program. The Advanced companies—
Advanced Plastics Inc. and Advanced Machining
and Fabricating Inc.—are contract manufacturers
that machine titanium, nickel alloys, Monel, 15-5
and 17-4 stainless, PEEK material, cast nylons,
engineered thermoplastics, carbon fiber, and
Inconel for the aerospace and defense and oil and
gas industries. A shop’s overall equipment effec-
tiveness (OEE) score is determined by availability,
efficiency, and quality and is an important measure
of actual machining time.
“We have spent a great deal reinvesting in
our equipment over the last 15 years and into
multitasking equipment,” said S. Scott Shortess,
president, Advanced Plastics. “Our approach is to
integrate a pallet system with a horizontal machining center
and a five-axis machine. We believe this type of manufactur-
ing configuration enables us to compete in the extremely
cost-sensitive aerospace industry and business jet submar-
ket. Typically, our parts are small in nature, and very complex
with a very tight tolerance. Work envelopes of our machines
handle parts 12 × 24 × 7” [305 × 610 × 178 mm]. That’s
about the biggest workpiece that we run. We process up to
7” thick titanium on the waterjet,” said Shortess.
About three years ago, Advanced implemented an incen-
tive plan, something management had been talking about
for years. Last year, Advanced installed FactoryWiz Moni-
toring software to get real-time information to control the
shop more efficiently and evaluate performance objectively.
“What we needed was a way to validate our OEE score for
spindle utilization,” said Shortess. “FactoryWiz gives us the
ability to loop back and compare estimated time to run a
job, especially ones that you haven’t quoted and run before,
with actual performance. That’s where the profit is and that’s
where FactoryWiz is so effective,” said Shortess. “But first we
had to establish a baseline and needed the ability to verify
the OEE score we had determined manually. We needed
to know our current state in order to create a plan that we
thought was quickly attainable.”
Advanced companies have 55 employees in both Ad-
vanced Plastics and Advanced Machining & Fabricating. All
employees participate in the incentive plan. “Our incentive
plan is pretty straightforward,” said Shortess. “We want em-
ployees to know exactly how they can affect the company’s
results in a positive manner. There are four considerations:
customer returns, on-time delivery, scrap as a percentage of
sales, and the OEE spindle utilization.”
Tablet with FactoryWiz monitoring being used by Forrest Vaught,
CNC programmer, at Advanced Machining & Fabricating.
The results could not have been more eye-opening when
Advanced installed FactoryWiz Monitoring software to moni-
tor its machine spindle utilization. FactoryWiz provided the
ability to spot trends as they happen. Real-time information
monitored includes productivity, idle reason tracking, offset
tracking, and preventive maintenance. “Each is weighted at
25% in this phase. During our next phase of implementation,
we will begin adjusting the weights of the KPIs to align more
closely with the department’s contribution to each individual
metric,” said Shortess.
Information is displayed on 10 large screen monitors that
are strategically located throughout the shop where leads
and operators and other personnel can easily view them.
Other screens are located in the programming/planning area,
in the production manager’s offi ce, tooling, scheduling and
the break room, among others. In addition, 12 wireless tab-
lets are available to monitor machine spindle utilization, and
the plan is to position one tablet at each workcenter.
“Leads and operators can easily view the shop fl oor and
their groups via the large screens which make them aware
of their program/production scheduling OEE score. It’s like
an on-line Pager, with visibility for each piece of equipment,”
said Shortess. “Visibility fi rst and foremost gives us the ability
to take steps to become lean. A Shop View Map on the large
screen display contains a CAD drawing of the shop with all
21 machines that are monitored. Each machine is Green if
running, Blue if idle, and Red if in an alarm state.
“The FactoryWiz Monitoring escalation of notifi cations
feature is extremely valuable when dealing with alarms and
idle equipment. We follow a 10-10-10 minute rule to get the
experts involved who can resolve a problem,” said Shortess.
“We set the Red alarm escalation at 10 minutes which means
the fi rst notifi cation is to the operator; after 10 more minutes
the lead is notifi ed, and after half an hour, if the problem still
isn’t resolved, the president gets an e-mail and walks out to the
shop fl oor. That’s powerful incentive to resolve the problem as
quickly as possible,” said Shortess.
“The bottom line of the incentive program is to get the
results that you’re planning for, measure them in a very
objective way, and reward the people that are
doing the work. We do have an on/off switch
governing the program. If the revenue threshold
level for the quarter isn’t reached, then there is
no payout for that quarter.” Advanced has paid
out an incentive for 12 straight quarters since it
started the incentive program.
“What we’re trying to do with FactoryWiz
Monitoring is identify the reasons why a machine
is idle and not running and be able to generate
continuous improvement activities based on the
analysis of those reasons. One refi nement to our
program has been to start adding team-based
metrics around our day shift and night shift opera-
tors. It will require better communication and teamwork
between our day and night shift operators who will be scored
on their OEE,” said Shortess.
“FactoryWiz has direct native Ethernet connections
to Advanced CNC machines, including Mazak Matrix
and Fusion controls, FANUC Focas, Haas, and a DMG
Mori with MTConnect. Native Ethernet connections
(including newer Heidenhain, Mitsubishi EZSocket and
Okuma THINC) can be utilized for monitoring as well as
for sending/receiving fi les. FactoryWiz DNC has a built-
in FTP/FANUC Focas software module that is greatly
improved over RS-232 communications. Simplifi ed training
is achieved because we have standardized practices to
make sure operators have the same look and feel on each
machine,” said Shortess.
For more information from Refresh Your Memory Inc.,
go to www.factorywiz.com, or phone 408-224-9167; for
more information about the Advanced companies, go to
www.advcosinc.com, or phone 918-664-5410.
SHOP SOLUTIONS
ENGINEERINGSEPTEMBER 2016
Copyright Notice: 2015 COPYRIGHT BY SOCIETY OF MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS.ALL RIGHTS RETAINED. THIS ARTICLE APPEARS WITH PERMISSION FROMMANUFACTURING ENGINEERING, THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF SME.
FactoryWiz machine status page at Advanced Machining & Fabricating,
President Kim Parrish (left), Jeff Rogers, CNC programming manager.